Give & Get Sale + Wishlist Promotion (Big savings!)

[caladein]

Note on the King's Bounty sale: unlike a few of the others, the individual pieces are also on sale at the same discount.  I just picked up Crossworlds for $5 since I already had the original and AP.

[raydeen]

Got the Kings Bounty Plat Ed. I'd played the demo for Armored Princess and liked it and was waiting for the bundle to go on sale. Now I bide my time for GOG to drop a DnD bundle...I know they will....

[Lantyssa]

I grabbed Crossworlds as well.  I missed getting it during pre-order for $10, so this works out even better.

[Der Helm]

Pulled the trigger in Left 4 Dead 2.

[Ozzu]

Pulled the trigger in Left 4 Dead 2.

Me too. I kept meaning to buy it and at $5, I couldn't pass it up.

[Teleku]

So, anybody know how Patrician IV is?  I'm tempted, but know nothing about it (or any of the other games in its franchise).

[Ruvaldt]

I've heard that it is monotonous and frustrating.  I was a fan of Patrician III, which was a fun economic simulation of the Hanseatic League, but from what I've heard this one is too wrapped up in drudgery and an endless treadmill of profiteering that doesn't really go anywhere.  It's still vaguely tempting at $10, but I think I'd rather just get Mount & Blade if I'm going to spend that much today.

Also, what gives?  No indie pack today?  

Edit: Spoke too soon.  Indie Puzzle Pack today, and it looks like a no-brainer for me.

[bhodi]

Don't buy mount & blade complete. Mount & Blade: Warband is a replacement/addon for the first. Buy Warband only for $7.50 since it's on sale. That's the only thing I'm interested in today.

I bought the king's bounty pack & galcon fusion yesterday, for those who are keeping track.

[Ruvaldt]

Oh, yeah, that's what I meant.  At the time I didn't realize the non-Warband version was even still available, much less on sale.

I've made off with a pretty big haul so far; 19 games/expansions for around $40.  Thank you, Steam.

[Malakili]

Bought the indie pulse pack yesterday since i've been watching to try those music games for a while anyway.  Thats the only thing I've actually purchased so far.  Even though there have been a bunch of tempting things, I realistically don't even have time toplay everything I already have, and won't for a long time so these indy/toss away games are the only thing worth getting for me.

[Cadaverine]

Gotten the Indie Pulse pack, L4D2, and The King's Bounty games for $20.  So far, L4D2 will give me at least $20 worth of fun.

On the other hand, screw Steam, and their irresistible sales, sucking my wallet dry all the time.  I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 gigs worth of games from Steam, and I don't think I've finished more than 2 of them yet.

[Der Helm]

Ah well... my Code for Warbands seems to be bugged. I need a 4x4 digits code to unlock and Steam gives me a 5x5 one.

[Ruvaldt]

As far as I am aware everyone who bought Warband is having the same problem.

[Der Helm]

As far as I am aware everyone who bought Warband is having the same problem.

Yeah. That is what the internet told me as well. 

[Nightblade]

Ah well... my Code for Warbands seems to be bugged. I need a 4x4 digits code to unlock and Steam gives me a 5x5 one.

Same here, amazon has it for 5$ btw. 

[jakonovski]

Right, last day of sales. My haul ended up cheap but powerful:

Alpha Protocol
World of Goo
Bit.Trip.Beat
Indie Flight Pack

[Sky]

Mafia 2! Wooho...oh wait, not that big a reduction. Bring on the xmas sale!

I did grab the King's Bounty expansion.

[Rasix]

I get Mafia 2 free with my video card. 

[Kail]

I feel like such a bad person for getting all these Indie bundles for like 90% off.

"Why, yes, I do support independent publishers!  In fact, I support them so much that when they put months of thankless work into making an innovative and creative game, I'll sometimes pick up a pack of five of them for about the same price as a bus ride to the mall and back."

[Nebu]

It's still better than pirating them like many do. 

[Ard]

Think of it this way.  Most of these games have already sold the vast majority of copies they'd have sold for full price.  The market is mostly tapped out, either due to maximizing early sales, or for lack of name recognition.  Dropping the price down to the $1-5 range means that a lot of people will impulse buy it, which instantly gets them god knows how many sales, and name recognition, since now people have heard of you.  Given how small some of these teams are, if even 100,000 people buy the packs for $1 a pop per game, that's still going to be around $50,000 in profit, assuming Valve is even taking anywhere near a 50% cut (which isn't likely).  That's not insignificant for a 2-3 man team, and I'd bet that the sales numbers are probably even higher than that.  That's on top of the utter lack of publisher fees and media costs if you're only pushing a game out online.

So in short, no, I don't feel bad about buying indie games for $1-3 if I wouldn't likely have bought them otherwise.

[K9]

Bought KOTOR on the cheap.

Is Aliens vs Predator any good? I enjoyed the old games for the fun and varied gameplay.

[Lantyssa]

We also know it gets them word of mouth purchases from friends at full price.  Really it's advertising over a popular digital distribution system which pays the indie for the privilege.

[MrHat]

The new treasure hunt/achievement hunt/discount games/chance for winning is powerful.

[dusematic]

I think they may technically be running afoul of game and prize law. 

[Hawkbit]

It is fairly shady, I agree.  I think they'll give everyone a free entry by doing something with thier account, but the extra three chances require purchases and that doesn't sit well with me. 

I was hoping for the same holiday sale we had last year... guessing that's off the books for this one?

[Ard]

I remember reading somewhere that something in the contest details of this one outed that the Christmas sale was starting on the 20th.  So it looks like it's still probably on.  I'd go looking but I'm lazy.

[Hawkbit]

That's cool, I hope they keep to it.  Thanks!

[ezrast]

It is fairly shady, I agree.  I think they'll give everyone a free entry by doing something with thier account, but the extra three chances require purchases and that doesn't sit well with me.

You can also send them a postcard.

[Segoris]

I was hoping for the same holiday sale we had last year... guessing that's off the books for this one?

I thought last year had the Black Friday week (like this year) and then a Holiday Sale the week of, or before, Christmas. Meaning that my guess is that this is probably in addition to the holiday sales.

[Segoris]

I just noticed that for completing these shady achievements that you can be awarded TF2 hats.....I'm a sucker for hats. 

[NiX]

I think they may technically be running afoul of game and prize law. 

How so? Tons of contests require you to buy in for the best chances and those who stick with the "No Purchase Necessary" side of it get the minimal amount of entries.

[Teleku]

God damn, this event and the Black Friday sale have caused me to buy so many indie games.  They keep showing all these games that cost very little money (when on the steam sale) and yet look cool.  Looks like I'll try another damn one.

Luckily, I was just informed today that I'm getting a raise of many thousands of dollars.  Hurray!

[Ard]

Honestly, if not for the sale, I wouldn't have looked twice at AaAaaaAAAa! or however you spell that, and I"m glad I did.  It's easily the best $2.50 I've ever spent on a game.  It's like someone took one look at Mirror's Edge, realized the game mostly sucked, and distilled it down to falling through neat looking environments, since that's the bulk of what I ever did in Mirror's Edge, at least.

[caladein]

Oddly enough, that's the same thing that made the browser and iOS versions of Mirror's Edge so good .